S
S Raid
Background:
I recently purchased a Samsung SATA 160GB drive and a SATA / RAID
controller (Promise FastTrack S150TX2Plus) to install in a Win 98
machine...the computer is used primarily for audio playback, thus the need
for a larger (and quieter) harddrive. According to the Promise
documentation, the card is compatible in Win98 systems. I do not currently
need the RAID functionality, but bought the more sophisticated controller
(as opposed to a plain PCI -> SATA controller) for eventual use in a RAID
subsystem. I also suppose I could have purchased a larger non-SATA drive,
but I also wanted to be able to move this drive to a new PC with a SATA
mainboard in the near future.
Prior to installation of the larger drive, the computer was running fine
with a 20GB drive for OS & apps and a 40GB drive for data (neither drive
was SATA). These drives were plugged into a controller card on PCI slot 4
of 4 slots total (note that this controller only operated properly in PCI
slot 4). PCI slot 1 was empty, PCI 2 had an Adaptec SCSI card, PCI 3 was
empty). Primary IDE on the main board was empty, secondary IDE had a master
CD burner and slave DVD burner setup.
After installing the Promise Controller and connecting the drive, I
formatted / partitioned the drive, then installed the drivers (I did not
install the Promise Raid Management software as it is supposed to be
strictly optional). I rebooted and setup the RAID config using the Promise
BIOS (keep in mind that I set the new 160GB drive as a single drive "array"
for now as I purchased the RAID functionality for future use of the card in
another system which will make use of RAID).
Mainboard and both controllers (non-SATA and Promise SATA) posted correctly
and Windows loaded properly. Windows Explorer reported all drives and drive
letters correctly.
Issues:
After initially believing that everything was correctly installed, I
attempted to copy data from the old drive to the new SATA drive. Copying
would begin fine but in short order, the copy dialog would hang, then the
entire computer would lock-up. I rebooted and tried again several times
always with the same result. Checking Windows->Control Panel-> System, I
noticed that the Promise Controller had an exclamation mark beside it;
further checking revealed that Windows was reporting that the device failed
to load correctly and that the System Performance Tab indicated that all
the drives letters / partitions on the new drive were running in
Compatibility mode.
Things I have Tried Using the Promise Controller:
1. Reinstalling the drivers provided with the card after deleting the
device in System dialog;
2. Downloading drivers and BIOS from Promise's website and installing /
flashing;
3. Booting into Safe Mode and deleting all duplicate device entries in
System dialog
4. Removing the old, non-SATA controller and placing the old drives on the
main board Primary IDE port;
5. Removing all other cards except the video card and Promise card
6. Moving the Promise card to each of the 4 PCI slots
7. Connecting the old drives to the Promise Controller's non-SATA port
(port 3) and setting up 3 single drive "arrays" (The old drives were master
/ slave on Port 3 of the card).
8. Various mainboard BIOS settings were changed (including disabling
audio), none of which helped;
9. etc., etc.
I have Googled and not found anything helpful to me or my specific issue.
I checked Compatibility mode topics, various Promise card / driver topics,
large drive capacity topics, and most tangential issues which cropped up
during those searches. So now I am here.
One final note - Although Windows is not reporting a conflict with an
external modem attached to the machine, I did notice that if I deleted the
Promise controller from System devices, the modem category would open
briefly revealing the specific modem device attached with a red "X"; this
would then revert back to normal after a split second. I have never seen
this happen when deleting other devices, but I have no idea if it
represents a conflict or not. The modem functions properly in all cases.
Questions:
1. Am I completely out of luck with this RAID controller in this Win98
system?
2. If not, what other things can I try to resolve the issue?
3. If Item 1 above is true, can I assume that any Promise SATA card (even a
simpler non-RAID controller) will likely present issues in this system?
Feel free to address any other items you want (including that this post may
be overly long and that perhaps I am an idiot) ... I'm open to any and all
comments at this point
Thank you.
I recently purchased a Samsung SATA 160GB drive and a SATA / RAID
controller (Promise FastTrack S150TX2Plus) to install in a Win 98
machine...the computer is used primarily for audio playback, thus the need
for a larger (and quieter) harddrive. According to the Promise
documentation, the card is compatible in Win98 systems. I do not currently
need the RAID functionality, but bought the more sophisticated controller
(as opposed to a plain PCI -> SATA controller) for eventual use in a RAID
subsystem. I also suppose I could have purchased a larger non-SATA drive,
but I also wanted to be able to move this drive to a new PC with a SATA
mainboard in the near future.
Prior to installation of the larger drive, the computer was running fine
with a 20GB drive for OS & apps and a 40GB drive for data (neither drive
was SATA). These drives were plugged into a controller card on PCI slot 4
of 4 slots total (note that this controller only operated properly in PCI
slot 4). PCI slot 1 was empty, PCI 2 had an Adaptec SCSI card, PCI 3 was
empty). Primary IDE on the main board was empty, secondary IDE had a master
CD burner and slave DVD burner setup.
After installing the Promise Controller and connecting the drive, I
formatted / partitioned the drive, then installed the drivers (I did not
install the Promise Raid Management software as it is supposed to be
strictly optional). I rebooted and setup the RAID config using the Promise
BIOS (keep in mind that I set the new 160GB drive as a single drive "array"
for now as I purchased the RAID functionality for future use of the card in
another system which will make use of RAID).
Mainboard and both controllers (non-SATA and Promise SATA) posted correctly
and Windows loaded properly. Windows Explorer reported all drives and drive
letters correctly.
Issues:
After initially believing that everything was correctly installed, I
attempted to copy data from the old drive to the new SATA drive. Copying
would begin fine but in short order, the copy dialog would hang, then the
entire computer would lock-up. I rebooted and tried again several times
always with the same result. Checking Windows->Control Panel-> System, I
noticed that the Promise Controller had an exclamation mark beside it;
further checking revealed that Windows was reporting that the device failed
to load correctly and that the System Performance Tab indicated that all
the drives letters / partitions on the new drive were running in
Compatibility mode.
Things I have Tried Using the Promise Controller:
1. Reinstalling the drivers provided with the card after deleting the
device in System dialog;
2. Downloading drivers and BIOS from Promise's website and installing /
flashing;
3. Booting into Safe Mode and deleting all duplicate device entries in
System dialog
4. Removing the old, non-SATA controller and placing the old drives on the
main board Primary IDE port;
5. Removing all other cards except the video card and Promise card
6. Moving the Promise card to each of the 4 PCI slots
7. Connecting the old drives to the Promise Controller's non-SATA port
(port 3) and setting up 3 single drive "arrays" (The old drives were master
/ slave on Port 3 of the card).
8. Various mainboard BIOS settings were changed (including disabling
audio), none of which helped;
9. etc., etc.
I have Googled and not found anything helpful to me or my specific issue.
I checked Compatibility mode topics, various Promise card / driver topics,
large drive capacity topics, and most tangential issues which cropped up
during those searches. So now I am here.
One final note - Although Windows is not reporting a conflict with an
external modem attached to the machine, I did notice that if I deleted the
Promise controller from System devices, the modem category would open
briefly revealing the specific modem device attached with a red "X"; this
would then revert back to normal after a split second. I have never seen
this happen when deleting other devices, but I have no idea if it
represents a conflict or not. The modem functions properly in all cases.
Questions:
1. Am I completely out of luck with this RAID controller in this Win98
system?
2. If not, what other things can I try to resolve the issue?
3. If Item 1 above is true, can I assume that any Promise SATA card (even a
simpler non-RAID controller) will likely present issues in this system?
Feel free to address any other items you want (including that this post may
be overly long and that perhaps I am an idiot) ... I'm open to any and all
comments at this point
Thank you.